Coming back from the storm

Sonny’s Canal House has long been more than a restaurant to regular patron Rinatta Vanatta. It’s where she first felt welcomed in the neighborhood when she moved to the area from Queens 15 years ago. “People I didn’t know were saying to me, ‘Let’s have a drink together,’” she recalled. “It’s always just been a very nice place. Everyone’s always so nice here.”

To many others, Sonny’s is a second home — a place where they come just about every week. But for nearly six years, that home has been without one of its most important features: its deck, which served as an outdoor eating area during previous summers. The deck was rebuilt in 2013 with lumber from the Long Beach boardwalk, which was heavily damaged in Hurricane Sandy, but had to be closed to diners in 2015 because Sonny’s owners were required to obtain additional permits from the town’s Board of Appeals to continue to use it.

“We worked really hard on it,” Gareth Moore, the restaurant’s manager, said of lobbying for the board’s approval. “We wanted to make sure that the neighbors were going to be happy.” Residents like Vanatta went door to door to garner local support for the deck project, which was required before the town could sign off on it. Elected officials, Baldwin Chamber of Commerce members and neighbors all signed petitions in support of the deck reopening.

Residents who spoke in favor of the restaurant’s request told the BOA in April that they consider Sonny’s management “family.”

After months of waiting for a decision, Sonny’s was told in July that it could again use the deck as a dining area, and last Friday diners were once again able to enjoy a beer or a plate of calamari while overlooking Baldwin Bay.

“I’m very happy about this,” Moore said at the grand reopening of the deck. “It’s been a long time, but it’s great now that it’s opened.”

The deck will be open until 11 p.m. on weekends and 9 p.m. on weekdays.

Recovering

Sonny’s sustained damage from both Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012. During the latter, the restaurant was flooded, and the original deck was destroyed.

In Long Beach, wood from the boardwalk, which was all but destroyed by the storm, was about to be thrown out. Sonny’s owner John Moore, Gareth’s father, rushed down to reclaim some of the lumber.

The purpose of using the wood from the boardwalk to rebuild the deck was twofold, Gareth Moore said, with the first being that it’s sturdy.

“This is strong stuff,” Moore said as he tapped his foot on the wood. “I think we’re going to be OK with this wood here.”

But it also represents the South Shore’s ongoing recovery from Sandy.

“It’s representative of what we’ve all gone through with Sandy,” Moore said, “and that we’re all stronger than the storm.”

Life on the water

Sonny’s proximity to the water is a central part of its identity.

Not only can people eat while looking over Baldwin Bay, but also they can travel via the water and moor their boats at one of Sonny’s boat slips.

“We have people all the time who come in with their boats, have a bite to eat and maybe a drink, and then take their boat back home,” Moore said.

Sonny’s also does its best to take care of the water. It held its second annual bay cleanup in July, at which dozens of volunteers removed an estimated 2,750 pounds of garbage from the bay.

Another one is planned for next summer, according to Moore.

Carrying on a legacy

Sonny’s is Baldwin’s only waterfront restaurant and the oldest one in the Town of Hempstead — the business started in the 1800s and moved to its current location in the early 1900s. It’s gone through a number of name changes over the years and even more managers.

Moore said he doesn’t just consider the restaurant to be his business, but a piece of Baldwin’s history that he’s now responsible for.

“We’re just the caretakers now,” he said. “It’s up to us to take care of it and eventually hand it over to the next people so they can carry it on.”